Abbott Destroys the Joint:- Sexism regains its crown in Australia as Tony Abbott retreats to the 1950s!

Tony Abbott, arch conservative and, to use an outdated expression, a renowned male chauvinist pig, has announced his new leadership team. Not only does it not include a science portfolio, he has only appointed one woman to senior ranks! One! That's right - only one out of nineteen Cabinet appointments is a woman.

As if to rub salt in the wound, Tony Abbott is quoted as saying:

Plainly, I am disappointed that there are not at least two women in the cabinet

He is disappointed there are not least TWO women? TWO - out of NINETEEN!

Only four months ago, Australia was proud to have a woman as Prime Minister. There were only four women (out of 20 members) in Cabinet, but there were in total, ten women out of 30 Ministers plus four out of 12 Parliamentary Secretaries (Members of Parliament).

Today we have one. ONE! woman in Cabinet plus six overall - out of 42 appointments. That's an overall drop from 33% of women with portfolio responsibilities down to 14%.

I am lost for words, so here's a picture illustrating Australia's new lot of Federal Cabinet Ministers:

11 comments:

Otoh, if you look around in Australia, I guess you're not seeing bush bush and wood, but stack after stack of high yielding dynamite.Country needs a Black Month (not merely a Saturday) like New York/New Jersey needed a Sandy. Like Holland is desperately in need of floods calibre St Elizabeths, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/St._Elizabeth%27s_flood_%281421%29 correcte for inflation.

You've got the wrong Anthony Watts. The Australian Anthony Watts is a much younger man than the blogger Willard (Willy to his mum) Anthony Watts, is a footballer who has just been banned for biting an opponent's willy in a game, is a member of a notorious motorcycle gang and has yet to express any point of view on AGW, although he's as qualified to do so as the US Watts.

As an expat Aussie I am both embarrassed and dismayed that Australia elected what now appears to be the ultimate science denier. Perhaps someone should ask Mr. Abbott what in his world is not explained by, or has not been made by, science. Can Abbott even say the word science?

From what I have read science (apart from CSIRO) will be under education which is simply not appropriate. Even though both are closely linked science is far more than education and education is far more than science. Science and Technology would be a better combination, but Technology didn’t make it either. That’s probably under Communications. Yes there is a Ministry for Communications but none for Science! One has to wonder just who Mr. Abbott hopes to communicate with? Perhaps there is a clue in his religious background?

And we now have a Prime Minister for Anzac Day, and (amusingly) a Prime Minister for Women... or at least a title sub-editor who doesn't understand grammar despite a private school education.

On the matter of women I'm amazed that Kelly O'Dwyer didn't even get a look-in for a secretary position. As much as I disagree with her position on may things she was an effective spokesperson for the Libs, but her work seems to amount to less than a pile of beans, where more anonymous people have ministries.

The one small hope I have is that Ian Macfarlane remembers the part he played in negotiating an ETS before Abbott knifed Turnbull. Macfarlane (at the time, at least) accepted the science so there may be some sympathy for climate change issues under his watch.

On another matter, is sounds like supertrawlers may be back on the menu for Australian fisheries.

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